The European Commission is the latest governing body to jump on the Google antitrust dogpile. According to the FT, it’s about to serve Google with a 400-page statement of objections, containing a litany of by-now familiar complaints.
The complaints against Google from the EC mirror the qualms the FTC has with the search giant. Mainly, that it’s using its dominant position in the search market to punish competitors and freeze out anyone else trying to sell ads. Specifically, it’s accused of punishing the rankings of other search engines’ sites, giving its own sites preferential placement, not allowing sites to use competing ad services on their sites and probably most nefariously, lowering the search rankings of sites that bought ad space on competing search engines.
The EC has been investigating Google since last November, after minor search engines Foundem, eJustice and Ciao! complained that Google wasn’t playing fair. And while Google is fighting its antitrust issues in the US, it probably makes more sense for them to try to settle, as it’s facing a fairly massive fine. [Financial Times]